Current Affairs Quiz-September, 2020

Notes:
The first Joint Commission Meeting between India and Angola was held recently.
The meeting was co-chaired by External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and his counterpart Tete Antonio. During the meeting, the two countries agreed to diversify their trade relationship. The leaders also discussed regarding cooperation in health, pharmaceuticals, defence, agriculture sectors.

Notes:
Union Labour and employment minister Santosh Gangwar represented India in the virtual Meeting of Labour and Employment Ministers of G-20 nations.
The G20 meet focussed on the G20 Youth Roadmap 2025 and discussed measures to curb the impact of Covid-19 on the Labour market. The meet also identified indicators relating to youth for the first time.

Notes:
Veteran Social activist and former Haryana MLA Swami Agnivesh has recently passed away in Delhi, after he was suffering from liver cirrhosis.
Swami Agnivesh was considered as a revolutionary leader of Arya Samaj and had led a campaign against bonded labour and female foeticide. He was also an advocate for the dialogue between religions.

Notes:
Union External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar virtually addressed the inaugural session of the intra-Afghan talks, being held in Doha.
Earlier this week, the Minister had visited Iran and discussed the Chabahar port project and the situation in Afghanistan. The Defence Minister also met his counterpart in Iran. India had earlier attended the signing of the US-Taliban pact on February 29.

Notes:
Yoshihide Suga has been elected as the new head of Japan’s ruling party. It is almost certain that he would be the next Prime Minister of Japan.
Last month, the incumbent Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced his resignation for reasons of ill health. Yoshihide Suga is said to be a close ally of Mr Abe and likely to continue his predecessor’s policies.

Notes:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has inaugurated various projects under the ‘Namami Gange’ Yojana and the ‘AMRUT’ Yojana in Bihar.
The four schemes inaugurated include sewerage treatment plants in Patna and water-related projects under the ‘AMRUT’ scheme. The Prime Minister also laid foundation stones were also laid for water supply projects and River Front Development Scheme under Namami Gange.

Notes:
China has successfully launched a solid-propellant carrier rocket from a ship in the Yellow Sea and successfully sent nine satellites into orbit.
This is the country’s second such sea-based launch mission. The tenth rocket of the Long March 11 family, the Long March 11-HY2 was launched carrying nine remote-sensing satellites belonging to the Jilin-1 Gaofen 03-1 group.

Notes:
The Government of India has formed a committee for conducting a study on the origin and evolution of 12,000-year-old Indian culture.
The committee comprises of 16 members with K.N. Dikshit, the Chairman of Indian Archaeological Society as a prominent member. The ministry plans to use the report of the committee in textbooks for the purpose of educational research.

Notes:
India’s central Bank, t he Reserve Bank of India has issued draft guidelines on Interest Rate Derivatives (IDRs).
IRDs are contracts whose value is derived from one or more interest rates, prices of interest rate instruments, or interest rate indices. RBI has allowed foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) to undertake exchange traded rupee IRD transactions subject to an overall ceiling of Rs.5,000 crore.

Notes:
India’s apex judicial body, the Supreme Court of India has recently resolved to ensure that the pending criminal cases against sitting and former legislators would be completed in a time bound manner.
The Supreme Court said that more than 4000 cases against legislatures are pending across the country, of which nearly 2500 pertains to sitting legislatures.